The Majesty of Cinemascope Aspect Ratio

Whenever I watch a movie, especially if it's in Widescreen,

I tend to prefer a certain aspect ratio for movies.

That aspect ratio is:

Sometimes referred to as 21:9, 2.35:1, or ULTRA WIDESCREEN, 

this widescreen format has been the go-to for many a movie released in cinemas since the format was introduced in the 1953 film THE ROBE.

Why was this format introduced at that exact date?

Well, lets travel back in time to 1925 with the unveiling of the very first tv:

This was one of the very first TVs made by John Logie Baird.

No, Philo Farnsworth wasn’t the inventor of television… rather, it was John Logie Baird who invented it.

Though Philo did invent what may be considered the modern tv(in CRT standard no doubt).

The tv example above is that of a Mechanical Television.

It used a rotating disk called the NIPKOW DISK to create the frames needed to generate pictures on that tiny little screen there.

If you thought the screen on Baird's televisors were small?

Just compare it to the size of the screens of these two computers below.

The IBM 5100 from 1975,

And the OSBORNE 1 (First Model) from 1981.

By the mid to late 1940s, NIPKOW DISKS fell out of favor and instead, 

Cathode Ray Tubes with their deflection coils, analog boards, Electron Guns, etc.

would become the standard for all things tv..... 

until much later when LCDs, Plasma, and OLEDS took over as display tech for Tv.

But what does TV have to do with Cinema?

Well, it's these early consumer televisions. That's what.

These Boxes were overtaking entertainment and movie theaters were not having it.

So what happened is that Hollywood took notice and started to emphasize things that you couldn't get financially on Consumer Televisions in the 1950s.

One was getting more color out of your film stock, 

another was emphasizing Surround Sound on Magnetic Prints

And most importantly, expanding the width of the film stock.

All three of these were unobtanium for the home back in the 50s because of the cost.

But this was the aspect ratio that you find on your favorite movies such as 

STAR WARS

Even though Color Television would eventually overtake cinemas again in the 1970s, TVs still were incapable of native Cinemascope.

If you ever seen a 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio film on your older 4:3 Television regardless if it was CRT, LCD, or rear projection, this is the result

So you get full wide screen video but you have these black bars.

The other solution was to fill the screen but that method which is called PAN AND SCAN was a no go because of faking camera movement just to see the finer details that would have been cut if the video was unaffected.

Animation, at least in the old days, however has almost exclusively avoid using Ultra-Wide lenses in their movies because of having to recalibrate camera systems and create larger artwork to support the wider lenses which in turn can create more dead space.

LADY AND THE TRAMP, and SLEEPING BEAUTY, were prime examples of lovely films that took advantage of ULTRAWIDE in their original release, yet production was fraught with problems from the very beginning.

After that, Disney went back to 4:3 with 101 Dalmatians

before finally settling in on the more malleable anamorphic 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio starting with...

THE SWORD IN THE STONE.

However, I'm using an Open Matte Screenshot from the Wiki

And even then, those films were actually shot in 4:3 on their respective animation cameras.

The reason why your DVD, Blu-Ray, UltraHD Blu-Ray, and 4K streamed prints use the widescreen version instead of the 4:3 Original Negative is because the studios are using their preferred OPEN-MATTE print intended for Widescreen cinemas of the day.

It sort of replicates when these films had their widescreen Open-matte apertures set in their original theatrical releases.

Disney would only touch the 2.35:1 Lenses for live action films before trying their luck with the lenses in Animation again with THE BLACK CAULDRON in 1985

but when Cauldron bombed in the box office, the confidence in the lenses was shaken again.

The company tried again but this time using a digital variant of the lenses with

ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE in 2001..... 

we all know how that went....

(I plan to do a blogpost on Atlantis in the near future due to the film's vindicated popularity)

So far, whenever Disney uses the 2.35:1 Lenses for animation, it's relegated to Live-Action or CG Animated films.

But at least I can show you other examples of traditional 2D Animated films that use the 2.35:1 aspect ratio lenses.

Most of these examples are from other studios:

The Thief and the Cobbler (1992 Workprint)

The Iron Giant (1999), 

Anastasia (1997), 

Toei's Puss in Boots (1969),

The Simpsons Movie (2007)

And last but not least:

The Final 2 Evangelion Rebuild Films:

3.0 You Can (NOT) Redo

&

3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Tome

Though for now, I'll show a screenshot from THRICE UPON A TIME.

So why doesn't traditional animation use this style of lenses more often?

Because of issues of tracking where the characters need to be on screen as well as fill all that unnecessary dead space that needs to be filled to the brim on the screen.

And this is more noticeable when such films like that eventually get put on Home Video.

Before DVDs, Most VHS copies of animated films are cropped and have pan and scan so they can fit the image on those older 4:3 displays.

Your best bet for Widescreen back in the day was to buy a VHS copy that’s advertised as Widescreen or buy a Widescreen Laser Disc of said film.

CGI animation is the most common where you can find 2.35:1 lenses being used.... 

that is if the studio wants to use it that is.

Just like with 2D, 3DCG movie productions often choose to render the final frames using the 1.85:1 Aspect ratio instead of 2.35:1 due to the commodity of both how most modern multiplex screens are configured are as well as the commodity of today's Widescreen TVs

Regardless if the widescreen tv is a CRT, Rear-Projection, LCD, LED, Plasma, or OLED.

One of the very first 3DCG movies to use the wider 2.35:1 lenses in the final renders was Pixar’s A BUG'S LIFE released in 1998.

But Pixar knew at the time that VHS Home Video was still king and DVD was still in it’s infancy to the point that for most home video releases, they just re-rendered the film on 4:3 since they still have the original digital files stored their remote Linux servers.

Modern prints of A BUG’S LIFE you watch on DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K Streaming use the original 2.35:1 render because we all have widescreen displays.

I encourage you guys watch this Pixar Classic on your sleek Ultra-wide Gaming monitors just to realize the majesty of the virtual camera lenses used to render this film.

One Reason I prefer the 2.35:1 Aspect ratio is due to how properly cinematic the lenses are.

I understand this lens is mostly for movies so If I work on Television animation, I will have no choice but to use 1.85:1 for the final renders but when it comes to personal projects, you know what's my favorite lens to use.

And here are some of my art that uses this lens type.

Man, it's been a while since I've done these art pieces.

Yes, I know this post is filler but my other posts are pending, plus I had work when I originally made this post, and I want to avoid Maverick Quickies for a while so I had to do what I had to do.

As always, See you next Blogpost.